


Daffodils in Winter

by WithExtraScribbles



Category: One Piece
Genre: Adventure, Crew as Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Mystery, Some angst, This has turned out a lot longer and with more plot than initially intended
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25231624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WithExtraScribbles/pseuds/WithExtraScribbles
Summary: The Straw Hat crew dock on a mysteriously abandoned island. After an incident with the local wildlife, Luffy falls sick and then another. It's all entirely too familiar for Usopp.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 42





	1. Bite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm currently blasting through the One Piece anime and what can I say? I was inspired.  
> I hope you enjoy!

The summer island had seemed so promising at first. After a truly horrific crossing from their last stopping place (including weather so poor that even Zoro hadn’t managed to sleep through it), the warmer climate of this uncharted island had warmed more than just their faces as they’d laid sprawled out on the deck.

The sandy beach they dropped their anchor near was almost white under the bright sunlight. The sea, which Usopp genuinely believed had been earnestly trying to kill and consume them just one day of travel earlier, sparkled turquoise. Just off the beach, a vast jungle of vibrant greens stretched further than the eye could see.

Usopp and Sanji would personally have been quite happy just to lounge around the beach for a day or so, enjoying the lack of increment weather.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you viewed it, this was not and would never be enough for their captain.

“Meat! Meat! Zoro, meat!” Luffy bounced around the deck and his long-suffering swordsman/first mate.

Zoro, to his credit, put up with the continual shoulder bashing until the last possible moment before boarding the smaller boat that would take them to shore, when he grabbed their captain and flung him down into it. Somehow, Luffy didn’t bounce back out again and neither did the two nets and large sack he apparently thought they needed.

“Useful ingredients only!” shouted Sanji from the galley.

“If you care that much, get off your ass and come,” came the growled reply.

It went ignored – not by choice but by being overshadowed by a call from Nami. The almost confrontation fizzled out with the swordsman jumping a little too heavily down into the boat and rowing away with a bit too much force.

“Maybe someone else should have gone with them…” Usopp mumbled to himself, watching the figures of his friends raw away.

“You could catch up with them if you feel so inclined,” came a smooth voice from his elbow.

He nearly leapt overboard in shock, an inglorious, strangled yelp escaping the back of his throat.

Robin continued as though it had never happened. “You could probably make it to them without drowning. There don’t appear to be any large carnivorous fish in this area either.”

“Would you look at that – my can’t-swim-in-shark-infested-waters-or-I’ll-die disease is acting up again!”

“I very much doubt-“

“Oh no, I need to go below deck for my health!”

With that, Usopp made a swift tactical retreat below deck, feeling their Robin’s eyes on him long after he’d delved into his latest slingshot ammo project.

The rest of the day passed by as smoothly as any day did, arguably more so, since the originator of a large percentage of ocean-bound chaos (Luffy) was absent. Robin and Nami spent most of the day basking in the sun on deck, one reading, the other requesting regular refreshments from Sanji, who spent the whole day catering to every need the women had. Usopp tinkered. Chopper made a round every so often just to check how everyone was doing, but spent the majority of his evening writing a list of potential items and substances that might be found in this climate, which could add to their stores of medicines if gathered.

It wasn’t until the sun was low in the sky, dinner mostly eaten, rapidly cooling on the table, and Sanji seething that those two idiots dared to be late for his food that they saw any sign of Luffy and Zoro.

“Oi! What the hell took you so long?” yelled Sanji, his cigarette propelled from his mouth with the volume of his voice. He caught it expertly between two fingers, stomping on the ash that tumbled onto the deck without looking.

Dwarfed by a bulging bag supported between them, the two figures on the beach hopped into the boat, which began moving towards their ship at a much faster pace than it had set off.

“What have those two idiots done now?” asked Nami, sipping at her drink with a sigh as she leaned against the railing. “What is Luffy doing?”

They watched as Zoro rowed like a man possessed, Luffy behind him with rubber hands stretched out, doing what appeared to be joint impression of a whirlwind and a windmill around both of their heads.

“It looks like he’s… swatting bugs?” said Robin, quietly.

Nobody questioned it. Usopp lowered the rope ladder.

With about a quarter of the way left to go to the ship, Luffy suddenly dropped down onto the bag in the centre of their small boat, and began rolling around on it, clawing at himself with bendable limbs and chanting:

“Itchyitchyitchyitchy!”

The boat rocked dangerously. Zoro turned, dropping one of the oars to clonk Luffy on the head with a closed fist. “Quit i-“

The oar cut him off, sliding into the water beside him and splashing water into his face. He lunged for it at the exact moment that Luffy untwisted with a snap, knocking his straw hat into the water.

“Hat!” shouted Luffy in alarm, throwing himself in the direction of his treasure, legs still wrapped around the bag.

From the ship, the rest of the crew could only watch as the sudden shift of weight on the overloaded boat tilted it just slightly too far to the side, tipping Zoro, already stretched out across the water, into the ocean. The swordsman surfaced, somehow have grabbed the missing oar on the way down, just in time to witness the boat capsize the other way, Luffy taking the sack of stuff they had gathered into the depths with him.

With a gargled curse, the oar was swiftly abandoned in favour of the drowning captain, who was tossed, coughing and spluttering on top of the upside down boat moments later. The now soggy sack followed and was steadied by Luffy. Then the captain’s hat, which had started to float back to shore. Then two broken pieces of the missing oar.

“I told you not to scratch it,” came Zoro’s voice as he swam behind the boat, pushing it towards their ship.

“But it’s so itchy!” Luffy whined. “My everything is itchy.” And he flopped bonelessly over the top of the sodden bag, unsubtly starting to wiggle.

“Stop,” said Zoro, emphatically. “I’m not fishing you out again.”

Luffy grinned. “Zoro always gets me when I fall in.”

Zoro simply glared. But Luffy held surprisingly still considering who he was.

Sanji descended the rope ladder to help pull captain and cargo up onto the ship. After a few minutes and a lot of cursing, the boat was righted and a soggy Zoro also landed on the deck with a wet thump.

Sanji wrung the water from his shirt menacingly. “So… care to explain what was more important than the dinner I made for your ungrateful asses?”

“Did you get lost again?” asked Nami.

“Luffy, are you alright?” asked Chopper.

Luffy, still sprawled as he landed on his back on the floor, had started to use his legs to propel himself backwards on the deck, wiggling his back for extra friction.

“Sanji, meaaat!” he whined pitifully.

“Well you’re shit out of luck. You were late so dinner’s already been eaten,” groused Sanji, folding his arms and looking away so he wouldn’t have to see the heartbreak in Luffy’s eyes.

“Saaaaanjiii,” came the response, from the rubber man, who now laid completely still and sad on the ground.

Chopper advanced on him as he bent one sandaled foot to scratch at his back like a dog.

Sanji sighed. “Your portion of food is already cold. Go put dry clothes on while I reheat it for you _just this once,_ got it?”

“There’s still meat?” Luffy asked hopefully, sitting up and shedding his vest instantly.

“Yes, but only – where are you going, mosshead?”

Zoro paused, his step making a squelching noise as water overflowed from the top of his shoe. “Dinner,” he said simply.

“Not a chance, asshole,” said Sanji. “Dry and clean people only. My dear Nami-swan and Robin-chan will not be eating the dessert I so lovingly prepared in a room that stinks of filthy moss.”

For a brief moment, their eyes met and Zoro’s narrowed dangerously. The swordsman’s shoulder’s tensed. Sanji’s foot shifted. And then Luffy launched himself across the ship, grabbing Zoro by the back of his shirt as he rocketed past.

“Woohoooo, food!”

By the time everyone was resituated at the table, the sun was dipping below the horizon and Nami and Robin had almost finished the parfaits that Sanji had prioritised over reheating Luffy’s and Zoro’s meals. Luffy bounded into the galley just as Usopp received his dessert, hair still damp and flat to his face, held there by an equally soggy hat.

Sanji opened his mouth as if to say something but by that point, Luffy was already seated at the table, knife and fork in hand, expectant smile on his face.

“Sanjiii-“ he began.

“Yeah, yeah, wait a moment,” Sanji replied, immediately going for the captain’s meal.

Luffy eyed Usopp’s dessert and Usopp pulled it closer to himself, hunching over it to prevent the inevitable theft attempt that was sure to come. While the girls could generally consume their food undisturbed by thieving rubber hands, thanks to regular violent reminders from Sanji, provider of food, and Nami, everybody else’s food was still fair game.

As Zoro stepped through the door, still towelling off his hair, Luffy seized the momentary distraction to make a grab for a piece of fruit. Usopp, anticipating this, hugged his dish to his chest and turned to shield it.

Sanji set a plate in front of Luffy. “Focus on your own food.”

“Thanks, Sanji,” said Luffy, immediately stuffing more into his mouth than most people ate in a meal. “Oo’re da besssht!”

“Chew with your mouth closed!” snapped Nami, who had the misfortune of sitting opposite him.

Zoro slid into the seat beside him and waited patiently while his own portion was brought to him. When it arrived, he also started shovelling it into his mouth immediately but in significantly smaller quantities than Luffy, who finished within minutes and began stretching his fingers towards Zoro’s portion too.

A fork slammed into the wood beside his extended pointer finger and the stretched appendage snapped back like a rubber band.

“Just try it,” growled Zoro.

“Sanjiii,” Luffy whined, “Seconds?”

With a long suffering sigh, the chef piled the plate with another, smaller portion of food and placed it in front of the Onboard Leftover Disposal System, who instantly set to work demolishing it.

“There’s parfait for dessert,” said Sanji, almost to nobody in particular as he took a seat at the table.

“So,” said Nami, setting her spoon aside, “Island.”

At this, Luffy’s spine straightened as though feeling a jolt of electricity. Without pause for thought, he shrugged off his vest and extended his neck, twisting around until he could bite at his own back.

Usopp released an ungainly shriek, disgust turning down the corners of his lips. Zoro whacked Luffy in the arm.

“W-what is that?” cried Usopp, pointing at the swollen lump that Luffy’s teeth had just released as the captain’s head returned to its former position.

“Mosquito bite,” he supplied, helpfully. “Tastes gross.”

“It’s the size of my head!” cried Usopp.

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration,” said Robin, “though it is certainly larger than a standard mosquito bite.”

“It was bigger than your standard mosquito,” said Zoro, pushing his now empty plate away. He still had half a mouthful and Nami shot a savage look his way, which he pointedly ignored.

“It was so big I thought we could ride on it,” said Luffy, waving his fork around as he spoke. “I was gonna catch it and keep it as a pet but Zoro smushed it.”

With that he stuffed another heaped forkful of food into his mouth and chewed somewhat sadly. Zoro shot him an incredulous look.

“It _bit_ you,” he said.

Luffy laughed, choked a little and then swallowed. “Its tummy blew up like a balloon.”

“That was your blood,” said Zoro.

Sanji slid a parfait across the table to him. “And his brains apparently.”

“Idiot doesn’t have any,” said Nami. “Apart from giant mosquitos-“ at this both Nami and Usopp shuddered - “did you find anything else worth looking at?”

Zoro shook his head. “There were some old ruins, looked like it used to be a town. Nobody’s been there in a long ass time judging by the state of it. It…”

He paused for a moment, looking around the dishes still sat on the table. Sanji, Luffy and Zoro himself were the only crew members still eating. Seeing this, he lifted his gaze from the table, regarding them all with serious eyes. All eyes except Luffy’s were on him as he took a breath to continue.

Luffy cut him off. “Ah! The books!”

“What?” said Nami.

Zoro swore.

“We found some old books and I thought Robin might like ‘em so we brought them with us, but the sack fell in the water so now they’re all wet… Sorry Robin.”

As Luffy spoke, Zoro muttered something that sound very much like ‘you thought’ followed by ‘your fault’.

Robin’s facial expression barely changed. Her eyes widened almost imperceptibly. For a brief moment, she did nothing but take in a breath through slightly parted lips, eyes locked onto to Luffy’s earnest expression.

Then she looked to the left at the space where Zoro was leaning back in her chair and grumbling and she cleared her throat. “That was very thoughtful of you. Thank you. I will take a look at them after dinner. There might be ways of salvaging them.”

At this, Luffy grinned, cheer regained, and reached for his dessert. From his prime seat between Nami and Robin, Sanji finished his parfait and set down his spoon.

The galley fell not into silence but to quiet. The only sounds were Luffy practically inhaling his food and Chopper meekly requesting an examination of that monster mosquito bite. Seeing that the meal was practically over, Sanji pushed his chair back and began gathering the plates.

“Whatever happened here…“ Zoro spoke up.

Silence fell then. He hadn’t raised his voice and while his speaking voice was generally louder than Chopper’s, it didn’t drown it out. Still, everybody’s attention turned towards him anyway.

“It wasn’t… peaceful. We found bones.”

“What kind?” Of all people, the question came from Chopper.

“Human,” said Zoro, grimly.

It didn’t look like he was going to continue and as Luffy leaned back in his chair, finally satisfied with dinner, Chopper climbed down from his chair and took a step towards him.

Then Zoro added more quietly, “It looked like they died in their homes.”

“Aaaahhh, murder island!” Usopp exclaimed, trembling. “Nami, do we have to stay here?”

“The log pose has to set,” said Nami. “Zoro, Luffy, do you remember anything that might explain what killed them?”

“Maybe it was the big mosquitos,” mused Luffy. “But I don’t think they would fit inside all of those houses.”

“It looked like they were in their beds,” said Zoro. “Most of the ones outside were by the harbour, not as many. Those bodies were different… Nothing to stop the wildlife getting to them.”

“That is most concerning,” said Robin. “I think I will examine those books. We might learn some clues from them.”

“Luffy, I need to take a look at your back,” said Chopper. “Zoro, were you bitten?”

Zoro’s brows raised like that was somehow a challenge. Nami glared in his direction.

“Zoro-“ Chopper began again, more firmly.

Finally, the swordsman sat forwards on his chair and said, “No. _I_ wasn’t trying to ride them. They’re fast but they’re not _that_ fast. We can take ‘em.”

“Oooor-“ said Usopp “- we could leave this island and go to a different island where there aren’t any massive mosquito monsters and the people in town are alive and not probably haunting the entire island as vengeful spirits who-“

One by one, the crew filtered out of the galley, leaving Usopp to lament to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed! This is the first time I've written for this fandom so any and all comments are much appreciated.


	2. First Watch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy an evening on the Going Merry from Sanji's perspective. I did make an attempt at continuing with a third person omniscient narrator but automatically gravitated towards third person limited so the rest of the story will probably stick with one person per chapter. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading as much as I've enjoyed writing this!

It was late when Sanji finally trudged towards his hammock, very late – or very early depending on how you wanted to look at it. Apart from whomever was on watch, the chef was often the last person to slip into the men’s quarters. He’d got it down to a fine art; he didn’t even need to see to perform his nightly routine, accompanied by the less-than sweet music of the others snoring – and the occasional murmur from Luffy in his sleep.

He followed the familiar sound towards to men’s quarters, opening the door with careful fingers. Silently, he slipped through the doorway, ready to make a right turn – not left because they’d switched the hammocks earlier after Luffy had scratched the top off of his mosquito bite and it had leaked pus through his own hammock into Zoro’s.

But before he could take more than one step into the room, he promptly found himself restrained in what appeared to be a net held in place by a single dark figure.

Sanji reacted the way that anyone would react to an attempted kidnapping: he lashed out with a powerful kick towards the culprit, aiming for the throat.

The stranger released a strangled ‘Ack!’ and fell back, entangled in their own net. Sanji leapt on top of the figure, pinning them to the ground.

“Alright, asshole-” he began.

He was cut off by a very familiar voice. “Ow, Sanji, what the-“

“Usopp?” he hissed.

The lump underneath him moaned, “I thought I was gonna die.”

“What the hell are you doing?” Sanji hissed back.

“What’s happening?” cried Chopper, sitting up.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” said Sanji, releasing Usopp. “This idiot just threw a net on me.”

The sniper struggled within the confines of the net. Above them and to the left, Luffy mumbled something unintelligible and rolled away from the doorway.

“It wasn’t supposed to keep you out,” Usopp half whispered. “It’s a mosquito net. You’re supposed to undo it.”

“How the fuck was I supposed to see that in the dark?” hissed Sanji.

They both heard rather than saw Chopper climb out of his hammock. “Is everyone alright? I heard a bang?”

“You’re about to hear another one in a minute,” muttered Sanji, unheard by Chopper, very much heard by Usopp.

“I thought you’d be in bed,” he argued, still hopelessly entangled.

Sanji stood up. “And you didn’t think to check?”

“It was dark and the hammocks have moved – how was I supposed to see you?”

“How was _I_ supposed to see _that_?”

Suddenly, there was light. Both men blinked and shielded their eyes. Chopper advanced on them with a covered lantern. A sad noise escaped the sleeping captain, who pulled a pillow over his face.

Now with light, Usopp began to extricate himself from the mosquito net.

“Sorry, Sanji,” said Chopper.

“Hah?” said Sanji, eyebrows furrowed. “What are you sorry for?”

“I knew Usopp was making mosquito nets and I should’ve told you but I thought…” he sniffed.

Sanji kicked the bottom of Usopp’s shoe. “It’s not your fault. This idiot’s the one putting the damn thing up.”

“It _is_ a good idea though,” said Chopper, somewhat meekly. “Mosquitos carry all sorts of diseases. There’s malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever…”

Usopp’s fingers slipped suddenly through the net, a pained noise escaping from his lips before he pulled it back. Sanji gave him another nudge. The sooner he got untangled, the sooner the chef could fall into his hammock and get some much needed sleep.

“If you can break it with your fingers, it’s probably not that good,” said Sanji, somewhat thoughtlessly, rubbing at tired eyes.

He drifted towards his hammock, already toeing off his shoes. He could just fall back into it. The light probably wouldn’t bother him. Usopp could do what he liked; Sanji had to get up to prepare breakfast in the morning.

“The mesh has to be fine to keep small bugs like mosquitos coming in when we open the doors,” said Chopper, sounding entirely too awake when all Sanji wanted to do was sleep.

“I thought they were bigger than you are,” Sanji said, words blurring together as he pulled his shirt off.

Luffy grumbled in his sleep at the continual noise made by his crew. Chopper looked between him and Sanji, opening his mouth to give a quieter reply.

A sudden scream from above cut him off. _Nami._

Sanji vaulted off his hammock. He was vaguely aware of Luffy sitting up as he hopped over Usopp and bolted for the deck.

The buzzing hit him before his eyes could adjust to take in the scene. In the darkness, barely illuminated by moonlight, a large figure hovered over Nami, who batted at it with a broom as she scrambled hastily backwards.

Luffy and Zoro had not been bullshitting. It was a mosquito the size of an adult man – larger if translucent wings were included.

Sanji surged forwards. “Nami-swan!”

At that exact moment, Zoro dived sword-first from the crow’s nest. The weight of his falling body skewered the creature, pinning it to the deck. It buzzed furiously. Without pause, the swordsman pushed his body up and landed heavily on the creature’s abdomen, which burst like an overripe fruit.

Nami’s expression shifted from fear to disgust. She took several steps back, away from the ‘splash zone’ and started to shake the remnants of the creature off her shoes.

“Couldn’t you have killed it in a less disgusting way? It’s all over me. If it doesn’t come out of these clothes I’m adding it to your debt.”

“Huh?” said Zoro, turning towards her. He stomped a couple more times on the fallen mosquito monster for good measure, his incredulous expression perfectly highlighted by the moonlight and accented by the splash of dark red up the left side of his face.

“Nami-swan, are you alright?” Sanji asked as he approached, giving the mess a wide berth.

Lip curling upwards as yet more of the deceased monster was displaced by Zoro’s feet, Nami added, “With interest, Zoro, to make up for the inconvenience. And it’s 300% because you’re _still doing it_.”

Under the moonlight, Sanji not-so-privately thought that Nami was beautiful – even if she was ignoring him and desperately in need of a change of clothes.

“What the hell?” Zoro spat. “I saved your ass!”

“You could’ve done it better!” snapped Nami.

A rubber hand shot between them, gripping onto the railing. Zoro took a hasty step back. It squelched. Sanji and Nami shot him a look of revulsion but he was already turning his head to witness Luffy’s catapulted arrival – an arrival that granted him a rubber knee to the hip.

“Aw, did Zoro smush it again?” said Luffy, looking down at the ex-mosquito.

“It was going to eat me!” Nami snapped.

Simultaneously, Zoro growled and held a hand over the area that had been assaulted by his captain’s stray limb. The words he muttered were said often, never meant seriously, and certainly never taken seriously. “One day, Luffy, I am going to kill you.”

Luffy rubbed at the back of his neck. “Sorry, Zoro.”

Zoro stopped grumbling and made to remove his now-stained shirt. He tugged it out of his haramaki, the difference in colour between the exposed and non-exposed areas stark in the low lighting. His expression was hidden from Sanji’s view (and Sanji didn’t care to see it anyway) as he looked down at it, only to ultimately stuff the clean part of the ruined shirt back where it had come from.

For a brief moment, all four of them stared at the fallen monster – Nami and Sanji thoughtful, Zoro with a frown and Luffy unreadable. Then Zoro turned abruptly and headed back towards the crow’s nest.

“We should stay inside,” said Nami as though Zoro’s movement had broken a spell. “And watch in pairs at least.”

“I can watch by myself,” said Zoro, beginning the climb up to the crow’s nest.

“Because you did _such_ a good job of that last time, shitty swordsman,” said Sanji.

This gave Zoro pause. He turned with a scowl. “What was that, shit cook?”

“I said, you nearly got Nami killed. Were you sleeping up there or are your eyes and ears as useless as your brain?”

Sanji took a step towards the swordsman. Partway up the rigging, he was out of Sanji’s range but Nami’s safety had been threatened and although Zoro had been the one to save her and not Sanji, his lack of concern for his carelessness in besmirching her beautiful form set alight the righteous fury in Sanji’s veins. He had the sudden, violent urge to kick Zoro in his bloodied face.

“I dealt with it,” Zoro hissed. One hand had come free of the rigging and twitched towards his hip.

“You did shit.”

“ _I_ killed it – _you_ just made noise.”

“What happened?” cried Chopper, emerging from the doorway, where a stunned Usopp also stood holding out his mosquito net, though whether it was supposed to be a protective barrier or improvised weapon was anybody’s guess. Sanji’s money was on the former, based on the way the sniper’s legs were shaking.

The little reindeer rushed towards them then stopped, covering his mouth. “There’s so much blood – we need a doctor!”

He turned frantically towards the dumbstruck Usopp, but it was Sanji who answered. “You _are_ the doctor.”

“Y-yes, of course.” He pulled his backpack off his back and began searching through it. “Zoro, please come back - you have to let me check you over.”

Zoro released a loud sigh, pressing his forehead against the mast. “I’m not hurt, Chopper. It’s not mine. I just squished that thing.”

Chopper fixed him with what could only be described as puppy eyes. Sanji found himself scowling up at Zoro on Chopper’s behalf. The doctor shifted nervously. “Well… I guess… If you’re _really_ sure you’re not hurt.”

“I said I wasn’t,” said Zoro, a clear dismissal. He held Chopper’s gaze for a moment, one eyebrow raised as though he was waiting to be challenged.

When Chopper, wringing his hooves awkwardly, turned towards Nami, Zoro simply turned away and clambered the rest of the way up into the crow’s nest. Sanji wondered, not for the first time, why he had to be such an ass.

By the time Sanji tore his glare from the retreating form of the idiot swordsman, Luffy had somehow acquired the broom from Nami and was holding it by the bristles, poking at the creature’s corpse with the handle.

“I reaaaally wanted to ride one,” he said sadly before turning towards the crow’s nest. “Oi, Zoro, are there any more?”

“Yeah but not coming this way,” said Zoro, leaning over the crow’s nest and nodding his head in the direction of shore.

Without the vantage point of the crow’s nest, it was difficult to see for long distances. In spite of this, both Luffy and Sanji shifted their gaze to the shore and watched the dark mass of the island’s trees. The presence of Nami’s sunset hair disappearing towards the shower and Chopper’s hat heading back to the men’s room was a distraction. It was always easier to notice things that were beautiful or garish and bright. Yet the longer they focused on the dark shroud in front of them, the more the movement of the trees seemed exaggerated, unnatural.

The light breeze barely ruffled their hair. Yet the tree line was constantly shifting. As Sanji focused on it, he began to notice figures moving elsewhere, on the beach, in the sky. And then he started to hear it too, a low hum like a kitchen appliance. Except it hadn’t just started; he was simply only now becoming aware of it. He wondered, a shiver rolling down his bare spine, if that noise had been there earlier today when they had sent Luffy and Zoro off to explore.

And if it had, if they had noticed it, would they have gone anyway?

That was a stupid thought. Of course they would. He’d have gone too. The call of adventure was just too strong.

He shook his head. Beside him, Luffy stretched his neck out for a better view. This was definitely an issue for the morning.

“Who’s on watch with the idiot?” he said, fervently hoping it wasn’t going to be him.

“Nobody,” growled Zoro from above them. Apparently his ears did work.

Luffy’s head twanged back. The rubber man seemed entirely unconcerned by the way it wobbled as it settled back into place.

“If Zoro says he’s fine by himself then he’s fine by himself until it’s not his turn anymore,” Luffy replied with conviction. “But if Nami says so then he should wake up the next person when it isn’t his turn anymore and they can decide if they want to wake the next person up too.”

“Great,” said Sanji, turning back towards the men’s room. “Then I’m going to sleep.”

Luffy caught him up, keeping pace slightly in front of him. “But Sanjiiii, what about a midnight snack? We could have midnight meat!”

Sanji sent him a withering look. “It’s after midnight. And never say that again.”

“End-night snack?” said Luffy hopefully. “Early breakfast?”

Sanji sighed, wanting nothing more than to kick his gluttonous captain overboard. But it had been an unsettling night for Nami and she surely would appreciate a calming drink to send her back to sleep once she had washed away the awful events of the evening.

“Fine,” he said, shoulders sagging in defeat.

And if, just maybe, the loud whooping and wide grin he received in response affected him like the warm drink he planned to make for Nami, well, nobody needed to know that his tiredness in the morning would be worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed :)
> 
> As always, I greatly appreciate any feedback or comments. (I'm not actually up to date with One Piece right now and I'm also new to writing these characters so do feel free to let me know if anything feels off!)


	3. Towel Thief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoro needs a towel. Luffy needs a distraction. Nami needs some peace and quiet.
> 
> The crew make plans to investigate the island and Nami has an unpleasant morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit of a slow one, guys. I got very carried away writing crew interactions. I was initially planning to include the island expedition this chapter but... apparently towels were more important for this one!
> 
> (The island will come next chapter.)
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

The quiet click of the door opening was what woke Nami this morning. The dull ache behind her eyes told her it was too early for her to be awake. The sun that spilled through the doorway as Robin exited told her otherwise.

She debated briefly rolling over and trying to go back to sleep. She wasn’t especially hungry. After her unscheduled and thorough shower the night before, Sanji had intercepted her on the deck to offer her some light refreshment to help her sleep, and she hadn’t been able to say no to that.

Even if it had meant having to witness the horrific sight that apparently was the way Luffy ate. Brunch food. After midnight. She’d seen scrambled egg interact with other foodstuffs in ways she had never witnessed before. She’d thought for sure it would haunt her nightmares.

Sleep had, thankfully, been dreamless. But far too short. Even women as beautiful as she was required sleep to maintain it.

With a sigh that was entirely too loud, Nami decided she should probably go to breakfast for two reasons only. One, Sanji would provide her with the caffeine her body so desperately needed. Two, the log pose on her wrist had yet to set. She didn’t know this island’s name. She didn’t know how long it would take. Their deck last night had been plagued by giant ass bugs. They needed to come up with a plan.

This unfortunately meant leaving her bed and completing her morning routine while hindered not only by her exhaustion but also by the water-damaged books laid out on towels on every available surface their cabin had.

Practically falling through the door and onto the neck, Nami had been expecting the sun to be in her eyes. She had not been expecting to witness the moon.

With a shriek of surprise, she toed off her sandal and launched it with force at the bare butt crossing the deck in front of her.

“Put some clothes on, idiot – nobody wants to see that!” she snapped as her projectile hit its mark.

“Look somewhere else then!” Zoro snapped back, kicking her shoe back in her direction.

Did he shield his manhood from her eyes? Yes. Was it to spare her from the horror of his naked body? No, it was probably to shield himself from the second shoe she kicked at him, which he knocked away with his shoulder like this was a ball game.

When the sandal fell to the ground a couple of feet away, he turned his back on Nami and quickly vanished below deck, leaving a trail of water behind him from the shower he had evidently just taken and not bothered to dry himself after. Idiot.

Of course, he wasn’t the only idiot on the crew, nor did he have the butt most commonly burned into her retinas. She and Robin always entered the shower prepared. They had their own towels, which Nami ensured were kept separate and soft and never rolled up and rubbed between Luffy’s disturbingly stretched out toes in plain view of everybody else.

The men? Everything had to be a competition with them. And while they periodically looked out for each other in battle or in relation to their respective roles on the ship, only Sanji had ever attempted to bring order to the bathroom – and even Sanji had since given up on the rest of them. They shared towels freely between them and didn’t always remember to bring clean clothes with them.

Usopp was the worst for remembering to bring clean clothes and was fairly frequently witnessed attempting to sneak back to the men’s quarters with a towel wrapped around him. He was of course, mostly discovered, and the way he wore said towel mocked by the others. But at least he was decent. He didn’t seem to realise that it was his failure to return the towel that contributed to all of the other incidents.

Luffy, for all his lack of shame, was the second most common offender – but also the worst. Luffy never remembered to check whether the towel was present and he also possessed no shame. While he was just enough of a loose cannon that his reaction to showering yielded varied results, he also saw no problem rocketing up to another crew member in the nude. And while he would apologise when Nami clonked him on the head, it was clear he was apologising for running into people, not the nudity.

And even then, Luffy apologised for his accidental takedowns but that didn’t mean he had any intention of avoiding it next time.

Nami realised with a jolt and a shudder as she retrieved her closed sandal that Zoro’s idiocy today meant that the only butt she hadn’t seen on this crew was Sanji’s.

Belatedly, and mostly for her own benefit, Nami paused to call after Zoro: “You’re paying me compensation for that trauma!”

Her second sandal had flown a little further. She moved across towards it, noticing that someone had swept the mosquito corpse aside and made an attempt at cleaning the stains from the wood where it had laid. The body was still on the ship, shoved up against the railing but it was less obvious and less disgusting.

She wondered briefly who it had been. Whoever had been on watch, probably. Two people weren’t really needed up in the crow’s nest. It would have been a tight fit so one person had probably been keeping busy on the deck. Well, whoever it was, she was thankful; one of her sandals had landed on the stained section of the ship and thanks to the cleaning attempt, it was still dry and unsullied.

Nami entered the galley, selecting a seat next to Robin. The older woman was studying a damp and damaged book, which currently laid on a dishtowel on the table. She looked up and offered her morning greeting as Nami settled beside her.

Sanji descended on them both with his usual exuberance immediately. If he was a little scruffier than usual, he masked it by greeting her with additional wiggling enthusiasm. “The tea you requested, Robin-chan. Ahhh, Nami-swan, how wonderful of you to bless us with your beautiful presence. What can I offer to this most exquisite goddess this morning?”

“Coffee, please, Sanji-san,” Nami replied, resisting the urge to grimace. Maybe that would rid her of her headache.

The door opened behind them, rattling in the doorframe. Sanji’s expression immediately soured.

“No,” he said, simply, staring down whoever was in the in the doorway.

“Ah ha! That’s where the towel went! Robin has it!” shouted Usopp, pointing wildly towards what was very obviously not a towel used for drying people (or reindeer). “See, Zoro, I told you it wasn’t me this time – look, she has it!”

Sanji kicked him in the hip. “Don’t accuse Robin-chan of theft!”

Now clothed, but so sopping wet that his shirt might as well have not existed, Zoro pushed past Usopp and sat down across from Robin at the end of the table. Nami watched as water dripped from his hair.

“And you!” Sanji now rounded on Zoro.

Zoro caught Sanji’s heel in his hand.

Sanji pushed down on it harder. “Stop dripping on my table!”

“Your table?” echoed Zoro, pushing Sanji’s foot back. “I don’t remember you paying for it.”

“I don’t remember you cooking this breakfast,” said Sanji.

“You-“ began Zoro.

He was cut off by a shriek from Usopp, who practically leapt into Robin’s lap. “Wahh – a ghost!”

He was immediately prevented from making contact with either Robin or the ground as several arms sprouted from the surroundings to steady him.

Nobody moved as the mountain of white cloth that had just entered revealed itself to be Chopper. “I’m sorry, Zoro – I couldn’t find any towels but I thought this might be better than nothing.”

Without further preamble, the little doctor threw the sheet over Zoro. The sheet landed over his face, the swordsman’s hands currently preoccupied with the greater threat of Sanji’s foot. Chopper shifted nervously as Sanji stepped back.

Zoro pulled the sheet off his head, allowing it to pool in his lap. “Don’t need it – it’s fine. I’ll dry.”

“It’s not,” hissed Sanji, at the same time as Chopper stepped up and started arranging the sheet around the swordsman’s shoulders anyway.

“B-but if you sit around and you're wet, you might catch a cold…”

Nobody except Zoro and Sanji had a clear view of Chopper’s eyes but all three crew members on the other side of the table knew exactly the look that Zoro was receiving: the one that made you feel like the worst kind of villain if you denied him what he asked for.

Zoro sighed and tugged the sheet tighter around himself. Their proud yet grouchy swordsman was pouting. Nami fought the urge to laugh, wishing she had the means to take a picture. It would be excellent blackmail.

One of Zoro’s arms fought its way free of the fabric to swipe at a drop of water rolling down the side of his face then returned to its cocoon. As he shifted his head, another smattering of droplets hit the table. Sanji paused on his journey back towards the coffee and scowled.

“Are there any spare dishtowels Zoro could use to dry his hair?” Chopper asked Sanji.

“No, I lent all but one to Robin,” said Sanji. “Why can’t he just use the man towel?”

“Man towel?” echoed Chopper.

“Yeah,” said Sanji, “big, off-white even when it’s clean. Sometimes smells like Luffy’s rubbery armpit. There are five of them but I’m the only one who ever thinks to wash them.”

Nami pulled a face.

“I resent that,” said Usopp with a sniff. “And he can’t. You see, thieves descended upon the ship last night, using the monsters as a distraction. Luckily, the Great Captain Usopp was on hand to defend our clothes – these thieves specialise in fabric, you see. They use it to-“

“Hey, Captain Usopp,” said Zoro, still huddled in the sheet. “I thought you said Robin took the towel.”

Robin looked up from the book, her eyes flicking from Zoro to Usopp. Almost imperceptibly, they fell on Nami before returning to the book in front of her.

Usopp visibly paled. “Huh? N-no, I never suspected you really, Robin. It was a clever ruse to lure out the real thief since they could have been lurking at the scene of the crime. But anyway, the _real_ thief was able to sneak into the bathroom while we were fighting that hideous beast and they took the towel I had left there, _nice_ and _clean_ and _new_ and ready for the next person to use it, like I _always_ do. So after breakfast I will devote myself to finding the culprit and bringing them to justice.”

Sanji placed a coffee in front of Nami. And just like that, the Beli dropped.

Staring into her coffee, Nami recalled the night before. The giant mosquito looming over her; thinking how ridiculously unfair it was that a broom should be insufficient the bludgeon a bug to death on the grand line; Zoro falling on the mosquito like a demonic hawk from the crows nest. Then stomping on it. Sticky substances she didn’t want to think about splashed all up her front, in her hair, on her face.

Thankfully she hadn’t swallowed any of it – it smelled rank so who knew how revolting it tasted? But she hadn’t been going to set foot in her room before she had washed every last trace of it off her body.

There had been a nice, clean towel folded on the rail when she entered. Excellent, she’d thought. She hadn’t needed to ask Robin to bring hers to her.

Nami was the towel thief.

She took a long sip of her coffee. Oh well, the boys had a combined debt of far more than one borrowed towel. She considered it a tip for all she did for them on a daily basis. Maybe this would teach them to implement a better bathroom laundry system.

“Does it matter who took the towel?” said Zoro, somewhat tiredly. “Oi cook, I’m hungry.”

“Wait your damn turn,” snapped Sanji, brandishing a ladle in Zoro’s general direction.

Zoro shifted in his sheet, folding his arms and closing his eyes like he was settling down for a nap. He muttered something, probably scathing, under his breath.

“Is Captain-san not joining us this morning?” asked Robin without looking at any of them.

“Was he on watch after you, Zoro?” asked Usopp, finally settling down beside Chopper at the table – as far from Robin as he could get.

Zoro cracked open one eye. “No, it was supposed to be you.”

“R-really? Well, I uh…” Usopp rubbed at the back of his neck. “I was so busy protecting our clothes from the towel thief that-“

“I didn’t wake you up,” said Zoro, cutting the excuse short.

“That would mean you took the whole night’s watch,” said Robin, as she peeled apart two pages of the book with precision.

“What about it?” said Zoro, testily.

“You must be tired,” said Robin.

Zoro narrowed his eyes at her. “I didn’t fall asleep up there if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Not at all,” said Robin.

“Zoro does sleep all day,” Usopp chimed in.

Whatever Zoro had been going to say in response was lost. Sanji set plates in front of Nami and Robin at the exact moment that Luffy burst through the door, still without his vest.

“Sanji – meat!” he demanded, squeezing onto the bench beside Usopp, who eyed the swollen lump on Luffy’s back with unease.

“Ah, Zoro’s a ghost,” Luffy observed, picking up his cutlery.

Normally, he would immediately begin banging it against the table, chanting the food summoning chant that accompanied almost every meal time. Today, he paused, staring at Zoro for a long moment.

“Is Zoro sick?” he asked, head tilted to one side.

“Zoro’s sick?” echoed Chopper, eyes wide. “Oh, no, doctor!”

“What - no!” Zoro said incredulously, but it came just slightly too late.

As unexpectedly as Luffy did anything, the captain extended his neck to press his forehead to the swordsman’s. And overshot it, headbutting him hard enough that the resulting ‘thunk’ reverberated around the room. Usopp and Chopper both jumped back to avoid the rubber neck encroaching on their personal space.

“Ah, sorry, Zoro,” he said, also stretching out a hand to rub at Zoro’s damp hair as he continued to press their foreheads together, seemingly unaffected by the collision.

Nami supposed it was because there wasn’t anything in there to be damaged.

“Luffy,” Zoro growled, voice low and dangerous.

“He isn’t hot,” said Luffy thoughfully.

Before his head could twang back, Zoro jumped up, grabbing the sheet and pouncing on Luffy’s head with it. “I’m gonna throw you overboard!”

The tabled rattled with the force of Luffy’s head slamming down on it. Nami’s egg fell from her fork back onto the plate. With a deliberate sigh (which she needed, to expel some of her anger so she didn’t slaughter the two inconsiderate idiots), she reached over and hit them both.

“Knock it off!”

Both immediately sat back down, rubbing at their bumped heads, from which a sizeable swelling was already emerging. Satisfied, Nami resumed her meal.

“Zoro, you have to let me take your temperature. Oh no, I knew I took too long to find you something dry…” Chopper hopped back up onto the bench, standing next to Zoro and grabbing at his face with uncharacteristic bravery.

“I’m not sick!” shouted Zoro, jolting the table again.

“Zoro…” Nami began a dangerous glint in her eyes.

He paled, not helping his case.

“But Zoro’s all wrapped up in a blanket. Why’s he having a duvet day if he’s not sick?” said Luffy.

Food was placed in front of him and Usopp. Luffy immediately began to dig in. “’Fank ‘oo,” he said, spitting food across the table.

Nami grimaced. At least none of it reached her.

“Say it, don’t spray it!” snapped Sanji. “You’re putting the ladies off their food.”

“Captain-san,” said Robin smoothly, “I’m afraid Swordsman-san has a sheet in place of a towel since I am using most of our towels to salvage the books you brought back from the island.”

Finally, Sanji served Zoro and Chopper before returning to take his own portion.

“Ah, if Zoro was sick, I was gonna give him some of my meat so he’d get better. But he isn’t so it’s all mine,” said Luffy, a slow smile spreading across his face.

The moment that his smile achieved grin status, Luffy’s arm stretched out towards Zoro’s full plate, zeroing in on the other pirate’s meat. Zoro blocked the attempt with his knife and stuffed a large percentage of his food into his mouth in one bite.

Seeing that the feud on the other side of the table appeared to be over for now, Sanji took the place beside Nami, who could almost see the waves of joy emanating from his body at being seated so close to the ladies.

“Now that we’re all here and the sun is up,” said Nami, “what are we doing today?”

“Exploring!” shouted Luffy, spraying food in Sanji’s direction.

Sanji glowered and kicked him under the table.

“E-exploring?” echoed Usopp, knife and fork rattling against his plate. “I can’t. I’m deathly allergic to giant mosquitos. If I so much as see one, my whole face blows up into hives. One time, a bird thought I was a beach ball and- O-OI!“

Luffy reached over and pinched a handful of egg from Usopp’s plate. Some of the handful spilled out from between his fingers when Usopp attempted to reclaim it. Sanji bristled.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing that town you came across yesterday, Captain-san,” said Robin, finally setting the book aside.

“Did you learn anything from those?” asked Nami, setting her knife and fork aside as Luffy hoovered up the table-egg.

Robin seemed to consider the question for a moment. “A lot of the books appear to be fiction. There is a handful of historical texts – some of them quite rare – as well as one notebook, which may have been a journal. I’m sure there will be some information there. However, if I handle it before it has fully dried out, I risk damaging it further.”

“I could stand in the crow’s nest and hold it up to the sun so it dries?” Luffy suggested.

Usopp elbowed him in the ribs.

“Exposure to bright sunlight would only cause it more damage,” said Robin. “I was hoping I might find more clues in the town. I can re-evaluate the books you brought back this evening – if Navigator-san doesn’t mind stepping over them for a while longer, of course.”

“Of course not,” said Nami, waving away the insinuation that she might mind the inconvenience. Rare books could be quite valuable and if some were story books then perhaps the older woman wouldn’t mind them being added to the crew’s profits. All for everyone’s benefit, of course.

“I haven’t been able to open them all yet,” Robin continued, “but most of their covers are still legible. I did note that whomever owned these books, they either were not looking for modern writing or have not had means to expand their library in quite some time. None of their publication dates are any earlier than twenty years ago. Did they all come from the same place?”

“Yup,” said Luffy, popping the ‘p’. “This old guy’s house was full of books. I picked the ones that looked most interesting.”

Now he mentioned it, Nami noticed that all of the books laid out in her room had brightly coloured covers. Most were red.

“I see,” said Robin. Her eyes darted around the table for a moment. “And how old would you say was the body?”

“Old,” said Luffy at the exact same time that Zoro said, “Dead.”

“For how long would you say he’d been dead?” asked Robin.

Zoro replied, “I don’t know how many bodies you think I’ve watched decompose.”

They stared at each other for a moment that was entirely too long. Usopp set down his knife and fork, pushing his plate away. Luffy descended upon the remains of his meal immediately.

“’E was pretty much bones,” said Luffy, through a mouthful of food. “He didn’t have much hair either. ‘S how we knew he was old. He was in bed too.”

“Most of them were,” said Zoro.

“Their homes or the harbour…” recalled Robin. “Were there any remains elsewhere?”

Luffy stacked Usopp’s plate on top of his own. “Not as many. It was just some bones. But there were lots in the doctor’s house.”

“It sounds as though the villagers were hiding or fleeing,” mused Robin. “Or horrifically injured and in need to medical assistance.”

Chopper set his cutlery aside too. “What do you think they were afraid of?”

“The giant mosquitos trying to drain them all of their blood?” answered Nami.

“That would do it,” said Sanji, seriously. “If they go for other mammals like ordinary mosquitos, there may have been a shortage of food. Damn, I was hoping we could restock here.”

Luffy shook his head as he reached for Chopper’s plate. “Nah, there was this big rhino cow thing. Zoro was gonna bring it for you but that’s when the mosquito came. Want me to get some?”

“There are other weird monsters too?” said Usopp.

Nami sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. The longer this conversation continued, the worse her headache became. “I don’t care who wants to go to this island but I don’t.”

Chopper adjusted the brim of his hat. “Whoever does go, they need to be really careful. I’ve given an antihistamine to Luffy but his mosquito bite isn’t going down yet. It’s showing some signs of infection too. We don’t know anything about these mosquitos – they might be more venomous than we know.”

“AH!” Luffy suddenly straightened, eyes wide with some sudden realisation. “Itchy! Itchy!”

“You only noticed now?” said Sanji.

“Try not to scratch it!” said Chopper.

Luffy paused mid scratch, wiggling in his seat uncomfortably. “But I gotta! It’s so itchy I might die if I don’t itch it.”

“It’s ‘scratch’,” said Sanji. “And it’s just a little mosquito bite. You’ll be fine.”

At the word ‘little’, Usopp looked at the chef like he was one sandwich short of a picnic. “Little? That thing’s like another Luffy on Luffy.”

“I really want to scratch it. I want to scratch it more than I want Zoro to give me his food,” whined Luffy. “If you let me scratch it, I’ll never steal your food again unless...”

He was twisting and untwisting repeatedly as he complained. With each untwist, a sudden gust pushed Nami and Robin’s hair into their faces. And Luffy’s volume only increased in intensity as his promises did.

Finally, he knocked his stack of plates with a flailing limb and they were catapulted off the table. Robin’s arms sprouted from the floor and cradled them before they could break.

“Luffy…” growled Sanji.

Before Luffy could twist up again, Nami raised her voice: “Why don’t you take Robin to the island to take your mind off it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed :) As always, any comments or feedback is greatly appreciated!
> 
> Next chapter will see a new narrator and a return to the island!
> 
> Perhaps some history will be revealed...


	4. The Bell Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoro, Robin and Luffy return to the island.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took a longer break than intended for this chapter, partly because it just kept growing longer and longer but partly because I had some very unpleasant news and wasn't really in the best frame of mind to write. However, not writing doesn't solve any situations so here we are with chapter 4.
> 
> There are some graphic descriptions of mosquito murder in this chapter as well as a warning for anyone uncomfortable with death.  
> There's also a fair amount of description as exposition on the town. I promise we'll get more crew interactions in the next chapter!

The sun’s heat beat down on Zoro’s back as he rowed towards the shore. Luffy stood over him with his sandals on his hands swatting at the air like a man possessed. This both obscured his view and irritated him as the boat rocked and Luffy’s knees kept jabbing him in the shoulder. Or face.

Robin sat at the other side of the boat, several sets of extra arms keeping up a pleasant, bug free air flow around her. Her face was mostly impassive but for the vague insinuation of amusement Zoro spotted as he met her eyes.

He glowered. The boat pulled in to the shore, the three passengers feeling the familiar drag as the bottom of the boat beached itself in the sand.

Luffy vaulted over Zoro’s head and began to secure it. As he did so, a wave of the disgusting paste Usopp had called ‘citronella’ washed over him and assaulted his nostrils. His skin felt sticky with more than sweat. There had been precious little point to putting clean clothes on this morning. The mosquito guts he’d sat all night might have been a more effective repellent than having overpowering bad-perfume smeared across all exposed skin. Usopp was getting braver; enough had been coated on Zoro that it felt like his skin was cracking underneath.

It was all he could smell. He could even taste it. His eyes had been watering for the whole journey, which seemed to amuse Robin all the more. Was this better than fending off a thousand mosquitos? He wasn’t sure yet, but it had been good enough to get Chopper off their case and get to the island in the first place.

At this point, he was almost hoping this would have no effect at all on the big mosquitos; his desire to slice something up was increasing with each passing minute. At the very least, it didn’t repel all of the flies.

He hopped out of the boat, feeling the cool relief of the seawater momentarily eclipse the unpleasantness of walking around in wet boots, and held the boat steady while Robin climbed out too.

Luffy was already halfway up the beach. “This way!” he shouted, turning to wave but not slowing his pace to wait for them.

Zoro was 90% sure that the path they had cut was left of here but he followed anyway with Robin following a couple of paces behind him. Like the last time they had visited, the trees emitted an unnatural hum, vines almost seeming to vibrate as they hung from bough to bough. It set Zoro’s teeth on edge in a way that was more annoying today than it had been yesterday. Robin surveyed the surroundings with an analytical gaze.

Ahead of them, Luffy stopped dead. For a moment, he simply stared to his left with mild interest. Then his arm wound back behind him and his usual war cry alerted anything living within a significant radius of their presence as the arm was released like a pistol shot.

The sound of breaking branches and snapping vines accompanied the arm’s return. Zoro rested his thumb against Wado, ready to draw the blade if his captain had initiated a fight with yet more murderous wildlife.

With one final snap, Luffy’s hand twanged back into the place, the captain staggering backwards as he found his arms filled with a long, white, bulbous creature, dripping algae stained water down Luffy’s shorts.

“What the fuck is that?” said Zoro.

“Meat!” Luffy grinned, hoisting up his prize. “I saw it in the water. Let’s take it back to Sanji.”

Zoro was about as far from being a picky eater as it was possible to be. He had eaten literal garbage before in his lifetime, when the situation called for it. But the thing in Luffy’s arms? The more it wriggled, the slimier it looked. Like a giant, hairless caterpillar, pumped up close to bursting. It wasn’t appealing in the slightest.

Robin stepped up, casting her eyes over Luffy’s catch. “I think we may have discovered where the large mosquitos have been breeding.”

As she leaned in for a closer look, the thing’s wriggling reached a peak. From one eyeless end, a tear slowly opened up to about the size of a grown man’s hand. Rows of sharp, pointed teeth poked out from within.

“Oh,” said Luffy, reaching a finger out to poke it. “I didn’t know mosquitos had teeth.”

The thing clamped down on his arm. Luffy instantly dropped it and began to shake his arm vigorously.

Almost immediately, the creature was flung in Zoro’s direction. In a flash, it was sliced into three sections, which plopped down at his feet. And squelched.

“That doesn’t look like good meat,” said Luffy, rubbing absently at his arm. Thin lines of blood blossomed on his skin as he did so and smeared along with the citronella paste.

“Mosquito larvae with teeth…” said Robin. “I wonder if they are venomous.”

“They had better not be,” said Zoro, stepping over the remains of the ex-mosquito larva. “I’m not carrying this idiot back to the ship.”

“Do let us know if you feel unwell, Captain,” said Robin. “Or if it begins to become numb or itchy or anything out of the norm.”

At the usage of the word itchy, Luffy’s facial expression changed from confusion to shock to the kind of discomfort that Zoro thought made it look like he was either constipated or attempting to hold in a massive shit. He stood there for a moment, wiggling where he stood like the perverted cook attempting to interact with Nami or Robin, then surged backwards, rubbing his back against a tree.

“Ahhhh, I thought it would stop being itchy if I itched it but it’s even itchier now,” he cried, rubbing harder.

Zoro marched over and grabbed him by the top of the arm, hauling him up and away from the tree. “Stop _scratching_! You’ll take the top off it again.”

Sure enough, Luffy’s back was wet as the scab on top of his swollen bug bite had been left behind at the base of the tree. Vaguely orange pus leaked from the crater left in its place and dripped like the world’s least appetising honey down his back.

Just looking it made the skin on Zoro’s own back crawl, every bite he had received from yesterday’s expedition suddenly burning with the need to be scratched. _Mind over matter._ It didn’t matter. No miniscule ordinary mosquito would get the better of him. No gigantic ones would either. He shrugged off his irritation and channelled it into dragging Luffy towards the town.

“It’s not this way,” said Luffy, pulling free with a slight grimace. One rubbery hand began to sneak towards his back.

Zoro slapped the hand away, pointing ahead of them. “The path we cut is right up…”

It wasn’t. They had left it somehow, while he was distracted with how infuriatingly itchy a tiny little bug bite could be.

“It must have moved,” he said.

Luffy didn’t correct him, just grabbed his wrist and tugged him in the right direction.

Zoro didn't think of himself as an unobservant person. His was a fighting style that required awareness of the world around him. He had been recruited by Luffy to be the ship's swordsman. His reason for being here was to protect the others; he had to be aware of potential threats.

But he hadn't noticed any of these weird mosquito grubs yesterday. And now that Luffy had found one and pointed it out to him, he noticed them everywhere.

Their path had definitely moved because now on either side of it, they periodically passed pools of algae topped water. Pools from which circular mouths on pale, bulbous creatures surged and snapped closed around other bugs, leaves and anything else that disturbed the water's surface.

Luffy didn't try to catch any more of them and nothing seemed to be bothered by their presence. They saw a handful of monster mosquitoes fly overhead, above the treeline but none of them descended upon them as they pressed on. Maybe there were some benefits to reeking of Usopp's regret, after all.

Finally, the trees gave way into the rocky remains of what might have been a road and the ruined town rose in front of them.

They approached in silence. The pathway was wide enough that they could easily walk side by side, yet they continued in single file, Robin's and Zoro's careful footfalls scarcely perceptible behind the flip-flop of Luffy's damp straw sandals. The low hum that could be heard all over the island echoed discordantly between the buildings almost as though the town itself was moaning in pain.

Zoro's eyes zeroed in on movement from the tallest structure in the town - the bell tower of a church to the eastern edge. Two dark shapes hung around it. The droning hum rose in pitch as the bell vibrated lightly: a ghost call from a ghost town.

"Ah," said Robin, stopping suddenly in front of him.

Zoro almost tripped over her as she bent down to get a closer look at something lying between the scraggly weeds that bordered each stone in the path.

A skeleton lay there, reduced to bleached bones.

"She was reaching for something," said Robin softly, her voice hardly heard over the low drone in the background.

Luffy either didn't hear or had spotted something far more interesting. He was still walking towards what remained of the town gates, head swiveling as he took in his surroundings. Zoro debated calling out to him in case he got lost. But he was Luffy. He'd be fine. He'd find them again if he did.

So he stayed with Robin and looked down at the body with mild disinterest. "How do you know it was a woman?"

"The size and shape of certain bones implies the body was biologically female," said Robin. "Wide pelvis, the rounded shape of the skull, in conjunction with the comparative lengths of the femur and tibia."

Zoro didn't know that he'd wanted to know but he followed the fingers she pointed with and noticed the features she pointed out. And the longer he looked at it, the more apparent it became that not all of the skeleton was bones.

Dried skin hugged some of the woman's chest, back and shoulders. What remained of a face clung to sunken cheeks. It was not enough that the woman looked like a woman but just enough to remind him that she had been a person once.

Robin reached out and felt along the skin.

"Interesting," she said.

Zoro looked away. Surprisingly, Luffy hadn't disappeared from view yet. Instead, he had climbed on top of the crumbling gatepost and stood with his back to them surveying the town. Any moment now, he would spot something interesting in the distance and rocket off towards it without care. And if they weren't watching, they wouldn't have any idea where he'd gone until the sounds of destruction alerted them.

"Oi," he said to Robin without taking his eyes off the captain. "We should go after him."

Robin straightened up and Zoro made to move towards Luffy - only to witness her walk past him in the wrong direction.

"Oi!"

Arms sprouted up from the ground, rustling the weeds around them. Zoro took evasive action to avoid being touched.

"There," said Robin, her extra arms parting the foliage to give them both a clear view of another skeleton. "A child. Around four years of age. The skeleton is damaged but not by predation - all bones are present. I imagine they were dropped from a height. The spine was no doubt broken in the fall."

In spite of himself, Zoro tore his eyes from Luffy to the pile of bones Robin indicated which had once been someone's child. He wasn't a medical professional but he knew bodies and he knew their limits. He'd envisaged enough horrific falls to note the peculiar angle of bones, the unnatural sprawl of limbs.

He swallowed a disgusting taste in the back of his throat which was worse somehow than Usopp's citronella. The citronella scent was as thick and cloying as ever. His next breath felt like breathing water.

"I didn't get a chance to look at the captain's wound when it was fresh," Robin continued, standing and turning to look at him. Her extra arms vanished, cutting the corpse from view. "Did the mosquito's proboscis have barbs?"

It took Zoro a moment to process the question. Before he could, the familiar cry of Luffy's signature move cut the silence. Zoro's head automatically turned just in time to watch the captain vanish in the direction of the bell tower.

He sighed. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I think it did. It did more damage when it came out than when it went in."

Robin nodded. "Should we follow?"

"Yeah."

"It's interesting," she said, as the pair of them neared the gates. "I thought there were other animals here but we haven’t seen any.”

"There were some," said Zoro gruffly, "out of town, that way."

"Yet there were six bodies between the trees and the gate and not one of them eaten or damaged beyond death. Why is that?"

Zoro simply shrugged, trying not to react as the upwards motion of his shoulders pulled his shirt up his back and rubbed against the mosquito bites he desperately wanted to scratch.

_Mind over matter._

“Maybe they don’t wanna come up here.”

“Perhaps,” said Robin, “we’ll find out why.”

Zoro kept pace with Robin as they moved into the town, waiting as she stopped to examine the gate mechanism. It hadn't worked when they had come through here yesterday, and it definitely wouldn't work now. Luffy had pulled on it to get it to move and one of the cogs now sat warped on the ground.

There was no Luffy-born destruction as they proceeded through the town. White paint flaked off of houses. Fences sagged against walls. Window boxes either sat bare and barren or spilled overgrown plants across the floor. Every house appeared neglected but not raided.

Robin took in each of them, pausing from time to time to peer into an open doorway until they reached a very familiar red door: the first one Luffy had entered the day before.

"This is where Luffy got the books," he said to Robin.

She nodded and daintily stepped past him.

Zoro didn't enter. Instead, he climbed up onto the roof for a better view of the surrounding area. It looked much like it did on the ground: abandoned. Towering weeds blew in a breeze that caressed his face like a light hand persuading him to sleep.

He sat down, back against warm tile, and without his consent, his body strongly considered that nap. The night before had been a long one. The day before that had been long too. And not a single nap had been taken, except for a brief moment alone on the deck between dinner and bedtime, when Luffy had been getting his back prodded about by Chopper.

The humming which had been eerie before now almost lulled him to sleep like the wash of waves on a beach. But no. It wasn't time to sleep. Just like it hadn't been in the crow's nest when he'd decided to clean up the deck to keep up and moving. He was watching Robin. He needed to find another distraction.

He jumped up (no sleep could be had standing) and actively looked out over the shipless harbor, fighting back the sudden, Luffy-like urge to leap off the roof and explore. He'd wondered many times, when he'd been a kid, what his hometown would be like if there were no people living there.

Of course, his child's mind had been thinking that no people meant nobody to catch him swiping food. No more need to stick to the shadows, to dodge quickly from place to place. No more trying his luck or avoiding familiar faces. Space. Calm. Freedom.

This felt more desolate than freeing. No people meant no tavern to drink away the stresses of the day, no restaurant in which to watch Luffy horrify locals, no bustling market in which to lose Nami (but not before he was already carrying all her bags).

A sudden resounding bang almost startled him off the roof.

Instantly, he turned, seeing that the church tower must have risen up behind him while he hadn't been paying attention. Dark clouds had gathered around it, which was odd because there hadn't been a cloud in this tropical sky when he'd been laying back on the roof.

Then the cloud surged around the tower and something a lot paler dropped from it and bounced.

Not clouds. Mosquitoes.

"Robin!" he shouted.

She was already there in the garden. "I'm assuming that's-"

"-where Luffy went," he finished, jumping down. "Try to keep up."

He saw her raise an eyebrow from the corner of his eye as she kept pace with him.

Streets blurred around them. Zoro had no clue what route they took but there was no losing sight of their destination as the fierce buzzing intensified and the storm cloud defined itself as a swarm of monstrosities.

Finally, the church loomed over them, cast into sinister shadow. Zoro vaulted over the wall to the church yard, weaving between gravestones and monuments.

The moment he and Robin set foot inside the boundary of the graveyard, a handful of the swarm descended on them. Behind him, arms sprung up from the earth around Robin.

"Gum Guuuum-" he heard from three quarters of the way up the tower, where the main body of the swarm seemed to be located.

He could see through the writhing mass of insects Luffy’s feet shoot out and begin to twist. He readied his blades to cut down the inevitable wave of mosquitoes that would be flung towards them

A mosquito fell in front of him, two of Robin’s arms beginning to fade from its back, a severed wing in each hand. Instinct compelled him to behead it just as Luffy’s move completed. Two more mosquitoes fell without wings to the ground. Zoro slashed open another three that had been catapulted by Luffy’s legs towards him.

“Swordsman-san!” shouted Robin, gesturing with her real arm towards the building. “Go!”

Arms shot from the walls, making a pathway up to where Luffy clung to the outside of the tower with one stretched out arm, battering the mosquitoes with his remaining three limbs.

Zoro hesitated. Luffy didn’t need him. Luffy was probably fine. Unlike Luffy, he wasn’t rubber and he couldn’t fly either. Taking that route upwards meant accessing more enemies but it also meant trusting in Robin’s devil fruit power, trusting in Robin.

He couldn’t trust her. Not fully. Not yet.

His eyes followed the staircase of hands upwards to Luffy’s fight. But there were so many of them. Luffy wasn’t in trouble, couldn’t be taken down by a group of excessively large insects. But for every one he knocked to the ground to be dispatched by Robin and Zoro, two more took its place.

Then Luffy faltered. The stone he was holding must have shifted. He pitched backwards, his other arm shooting out and grabbing at the bell. A loud clang reverberated through the air, the vibrations traveling up Zoro’s swords into his body. But he barely noticed because as Luffy’s arm reached for safety, it could not be used to smash into the mosquitoes barreling towards him. As he focused on getting hold of something, he was not focusing on aiming his feet beyond kicking out in desperation.

And the sharp, barbed proboscis pierced through his shoulder.

“Luffy!”

The arm-path Robin had created shuddered but remained intact. Zoro surged up it, no longer needing trust, only luck and his own power.

Before Luffy could do anything about the giant insect intent on siphoning his blood, Sandai Kitetsu came slashing down on it, severing half its head from the body, which fell to the ground, taking out one of its friends on the way.

“Hurry up,” said Zoro, his swords arcing through the air, slicing as many monsters as he could. “Let’s get on the ground.”

“But there’s something up there!” cried Luffy, and he reached out, grabbing Zoro by the upper arm with one hand. “We’ve gotta see.”

“We?”

They rocketed up, Kitetsu taking out another mosquito without Zoro’s consent on the way. Only to slam face first into an old bronze bell. Zoro prided himself on being durable; he knew he had a hard head. But stars still bloomed behind his eyes and the world still tilted beneath his feet.

“Luffy,” he growled.

“Sorry, Zoro,” said Luffy with a little laugh as he got to his feet.

The mosquito’s proboscis was still sticking out of his shoulder. It went ignored by the captain - not by Zoro. This one was larger than the last had been, about three quarters of the width of Wado Ichimonji’s blade. And it had skewered Luffy, the barbs holding it in place. It wasn’t bleeding and Luffy was not excessively pale or shaky, so it couldn’t have been able to take too much of his blood before Zoro had been able to cut it down. But it looked painful. It looked wrong. Luffy didn’t lose. Not to a bug.

“Oh,” said Luffy, hand finally raising to his wounded shoulder.

Zoro followed his gaze to the other side of the bell to a half open trap door, from which protruded a skeletal hand.

“I thought there was someone here,” said Luffy, eyes flicking from the outstretched hand towards a pile of rag and bone slumped under the bell. “There isn’t anymore.”

Zoro didn’t know what to say at that. He took a step closer, narrowing his eyes to better see the person half hidden by the bell. Over the empty years, the bell must have started to fall. Or perhaps it had been lowered before this person had died. Either way, it now acted as a shelter to a body that had been bundled up in blankets at one point. A watchman perhaps, now in something deeper than sleep on the job.

A wild buzzing to his left jolted Zoro back to the present. The mosquitoes had been repelled by the noise of the bell. Not for long. He cut as many down as he could. Their numbers were dwindling rapidly.

“I’ll get Robin,” said Luffy, already stretching out to grab her.

Zoro dodged to the side, clearing her trajectory of mosquitoes before Robin was reeled in (much more safely than he ever had been, he noticed) to Luffy’s arms.

Between them, they took out a handful more of the mosquito monsters, which could no longer surround them, protected as they were by the roof and pillars of the bell tower. Until they stopped coming, the remainder hanging in the air, just out of reach. Almost sinisterly. Like they were waiting.

“I see you found a trapdoor,” said Robin, breaking off the wings of the nearest mosquito as she stepped towards the door.

“Mmhmm,” said Luffy. “The door is locked so we have to go this way.”

He stooped to wrench open the door. Its hinges protested with a tortured shriek that echoed oddly around the bell. Luffy was unperturbed, uttering a quick thank you to the skeleton on the spiral staircase, whose hand had held the door open for them, on his way down.

Zoro motioned for Robin to go ahead of him. She did so with a look he couldn’t read. Zoro didn’t close the door behind him, but pulled it mostly shut. Somehow it felt wrong to trap the dead man’s hand again so he left it just an inch or so above, putting a chipped off piece of railing underneath to hold it.

Then he followed Luffy and Robin’s footsteps down the gloomy spiral staircase and into the church.

The air as they descended grew stale, the musty scent of death rising up around them. Zoro resisted the urge to bring a hand to his mouth. Luffy reached the bottom of the staircase first and opened the warped wooden door without hesitation, letting both light and the stench spill out towards them.

When his eyes adjusted, Zoro expected to see a standard churchlike layout. Perhaps some destruction. Maybe the corpse of a long dead monster – or something that wasn’t dead yet but would be once they were through with it.

He saw destruction, yes, but not the way he had expected.

Illuminated by coloured light from aged stained glass windows was an interior that clearly had been a place of worship, once. Various artifacts hung on the walls. A stone altar stat untouched at one end of the building. Some tapestries were draped over wooden structures that people might once have stood on to speak.

But the pews were no longer pews. Some had been made into makeshift beds for long dead townsfolk. These beds were lined up, the organisation reminiscent of a hospital ward or a military encampment. Others had been overturned and used to mark off certain areas, where boxes sat in piles or as makeshift desks for preparing what looked like the medicines Chopper mixed.

Robin drifted towards the abandoned mixing area immediately. Luffy took a single step towards an area for supplies then stopped. Zoro watched the shiver roll up his bare back. Before anybody could say anything, Luffy’s rubbery arm was twisting up behind him.

Instinctively, Zoro reached out to swat it away from the still oozing bite from yesterday. Too slow. He miscalculated Luffy’s goal. The hand closed around what passed for a jaw amongst Mosquito kind and yanked the barbed proboscis from his shoulder, tossing it on the ground without regard for whatever etiquette was supposed to be followed in a church.

Blood spilled down his back, a slow trickle but persistent. Luffy ignored it, continuing on towards the supplies.

Zoro simply stood between his two crewmates, all his senses unnaturally attuned to his captain’s injury – from the sound of the blood dripping onto the floor with the erratic way that Luffy moved around the sacks and crates to the scent of iron undercutting the musty aroma.

“They left food here,” said Luffy, hefting a crate onto a pew. Jars clattered inside. “Mystery jars! Let’s take it to Sanji.”

“I doubt there’s anything left that’s any good,” said Zoro.

Luffy shrugged. More blood dripped distractingly down his shoulder. “It says ‘preserves’ on it. That means it should last a long time, right?”

“Theoretically,” said Robin, turning to face their captain. “It would be wiser not to try it. At best, it would be very old. At worst… there are worse fates than food poisoning… And these people certainly met one of them.”

“But… mystery jars!” Luffy looked from Robin to Zoro pleadingly.

“Mystery deaths too,” said Robin, gesturing to the skeletons in the beds.

Zoro simply folded his arms over his chest and shot the captain an unimpressed look.

“Fine,” said Luffy, visibly deflating. As his shoulders fell to reflect his disappointment, blood trickled from his shoulder to the waistband of his shorts, staining the top of the fabric dark.

Both Robin and Zoro stared.

“What?” said Luffy. “I put everything back. I didn’t even take one mystery jar. And I _definitely_ didn’t lick _anything_.”

Zoro tapped his foot against the ground. Against his better judgement, he hadn’t thought Luffy had done any of those things. He wouldn’t have done either. He did now. But commenting on it wouldn’t change what might have already happened.

“You’re bleeding,” he said instead.

Luffy looked at the wrong arm, where the mosquito larva had bitten him. The marks still existed but in true Luffy fashion, the injury seemed to have already started to heal and the blood was reduced to a few dried steaks on his skin. His eyes moved from that to the freshly torn skin of his other shoulder.

“Oh,” he said, eyes widening slightly like he’d only just noticed. He then shrugged. “It’s not that much.”

Zoro almost flinched as a hand sprouted from Luffy’s back, putting pressure on the wound. Luffy hissed. Zoro spun to face Robin, body tense.

“The mosquito must have an anticoagulant,” she said. “We should keep pressure on it to slow the bleeding.”

“Anti-koala-armour?” said Luffy, head tilting to one side.

“Anticoagulant,” Robin corrected. “A substance to stop blood clotting, so it flows freely. It makes sense – it would enable the predator to drain its prey more efficiently.”

Zoro almost voiced a concern that Luffy might bleed out from what was, comparatively for them, a minor injury. But didn’t. Luffy had been bitten yesterday and had been fine, after all. And he didn’t want to ask anything of Robin that really mattered, not when her loyalty was not assured.

“It gives me more blood, awesome!” said Luffy, practically dancing over to a set of stairs leading down.

“That isn’t what she said,” hissed Zoro, following anyway. “She said you’re losing more. And move more carefully – you’re still leaking.”

There was a door at the bottom of the passage, closed by a heavy wooden beam. Zoro reached for one end, mostly to stop Luffy from taking the whole thing, and between the two of them, the heavy door was swiftly kicked open.

“Yosh!” said Luffy, stepping first into the room.

It was darker in here, with only the limited light from the main part of the church spilling down the stairs and into the doorway. Zoro didn’t need to wait for his eyes to adjust to know what this room contained; the smell hit him like a punch from their captain. Death.

Bodies, wrapped in sheets that might once have been white, lay side by side across the floor. Luffy paused, one foot raised, about to step on one of them.

“Oh,” he said.

“This must be where they stored their dead in the early days,” said Robin from behind him.

She had found a lantern and had a disembodied hand protruding from her shoulder to hold it steady. Now fully illuminated, the scale of the room made Zoro uneasy. He didn’t want to count the dead but he didn’t need to count to know that it was too many.

“These haven’t decayed as much as the ones upstairs. They were not as exposed to the elements,” she added.

Luffy took a step back to allow her to pass and if that step brought his arm into contact with Zoro’s and that was a peculiar comfort then it wasn’t for either of them to dwell upon.

More arms sprouted from the floor, unwrapping the closest body to examine it. It had been a man around Zoro’s size. A necklace sat nestled in the hollow of his neck. Luffy brushed past Zoro’s arm with a little too much force as he moved back up the stairs.

Zoro was torn between following him and the morbid urge to watch as Robin observed the body’s state of decay, probably determining in her head what she thought had happened to this man like she had done for the woman and child outside.

Ultimately, disgust won out and he trailed up the stairs after his captain, an unwelcome chill settling in his veins. The hair on the back of his neck prickled. His back tingled beneath his shirt.

Despite the pressure of Robin’s hand on his shoulder and what must have been warm wetness down his back, Luffy moved back towards the supplies in a way that seemed almost casual. And Zoro wondered. In here, it was easy to assume safety from the things outside. His eyes fell back onto the figures in the makeshift cots, barely shells of people, dead where they had slept.

Had they truly been safer in here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed :)
> 
> As always, all comments are appreciated and inspire me to keep on writing. I am always open to consctructive criticism - I'm still not up to date One Piece and don't know these characters (especially Robin) as well as I would like ^_^


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